


Facing Your Fears

by Nethore



Category: I created this story on my own and it is based off of NO fandom.
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21975676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nethore/pseuds/Nethore
Summary: Kai has never had the best relationship with his parents. They died young from their own means and Kai has hated them since. He now lives with his grandma. On Halloween weekend, Kai's friend talks him into going to a cave where mysterious and dangerous events take place. During this trip, Kai will have to decide if he wants to face the fears his parents left him with or die. (Mention of suicide and damaging actions towards oneself whether physical, emotional, or mental) (BE WARNED)
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 2





	Facing Your Fears

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I know this work isn't the best and the outcome isn't as dragged out as it should be but, I wrote this for my English class as a spooky Halloween short story (it kinda also isn't that short) and I wrote it in a day so some stuff is kinda rushed. My goal with this story was to just implement as many details as possible when it comes to emotions, characteristics, and setting. I'm a 10th grader so please don't have any high expectations.

Kai wonders now why he agreed to go. Looking back it might have been because Racheal had flashed her blue eyes at him or maybe because he still felt guilty that he caused her to be late to school two days ago. Either way, deciding to go to a cave for Halloween weekend didn’t really seem like something he would normally decide to do. Especially since the cave itself was 6 hours away from St. Louis where he resided. 

Kai didn’t even know what to pack, what do you wear on a cave outing he asked himself internally. Deciding to just bring two outfits with one being pajamas, he zipped up his bag and went out to the living room where his Grandmother was situated on the brown leather couch.

Looking at her, he internally sighs knowing that when she sits in the living room on the couch that usually meant she wanted to talk. He decided it would be better to go ahead and get it over with, so he walked over and sat down. She looked at him for a few seconds and then said ‘I know you don’t like talking about them and you hate it when I bring them up but I just want you to know that I’m so proud of you and I want you to try to have fun this weekend.”. 

Kai took in a deep breath and tried to not look like all he wanted to do was run out of the house. He knows she doesn’t fully understand why he hates talking about them or even thinking their names, but he found out a long time ago that the grief will just turn to self-hatred and thoughts of why he isn’t good enough and determined years ago that to save himself the best thing he could do was turn all that hatred onto them and ignore the fears that they left him with.

He looked back up when he heard her clear her throat and saw in her brown eyes that she wasn’t done and that he probably wouldn’t like what she said next. “Your parents would also be really proud of you, and I know that if they were here now, they would tell you just that.” He was right, he didn’t like what she said, he didn’t like the insinuation that they didn’t have a choice whether they were here or not, like his mom didn’t smoke herself into an early grave and his dad didn’t give up a long time ago. He just wanted to leave and that’s exactly what he did, with a quiet and ingenuine thank you and a meant goodbye he walked out of the brick red house and called Racheal to come to get him wondering why exactly he felt as if when he gets back from this weekend trip he’d be different.

***

A few hours later while sitting in his best friend’s car, he thought back to the conversation with his grandma and felt guilty that he stormed out the way he did without a hug or even a proper goodbye. Knowing that he can’t do anything about it now he says to Racheal “Why did you even want to go to this cave anyway?” She starts jumping in excitement which causes her black hair to jump around with her and says “Supposedly some people have gone into the cave and never came out again, which is weird because there have also been people who have gone in and came right back out completely fine.” 

Kai takes a moment to take this in and question his friend’s sanity before saying “So you heard this.. and still wanted to go into the cave?” he stares as she nods frantically and replies with an excited yep. Deciding that he needs some sleep to get through the rest of the day, he leans his head on the car door window with a sigh and watches as the world fades into black and he falls asleep.

***

He’s woken up hours later by the feeling of the vehicle’s stop in motion and Racheal tapping him on his arm repeatedly while saying “We’re here, we’re here” which he immediately puts a stop to once fully woken up by stepping out of the car and shutting the door muffling her voice. He stands for a moment and breaths in the fresh air while staring out at the green and brown of his surroundings already feeling the difference between the city that’s his birthplace and the place at which is going to be his home for the next couple of days if all plans go accordingly. 

When he hears Rachael’s muffled voice finally stop he turns around and sees through the closed car door’s window that she’s pouting and he laughs before gesturing for her to get out of the car. As she completes his request and places a healed boot on the dirt-packed ground he sees her also take in a breath and release it in the same second. The relief and comfort on her face is enough to smother whatever annoyance was still taking root in him and he comes to actually think that maybe the weekend trip won’t be that bad.  
***

He takes that back an hour later when they have to put the tent up. Kai didn’t think it would be that bad at first but once he’s in front of the mess of fabric and the seemingly random poles all he’s left with is confusion. The girl who planed this whole thing watches as he struggles and when he sends her a judgmental look; all he gets back is “Hey, we took my car down here, I drove and I bought gas, so you get to put up the tent.”

He’s about to hit her with the fact that this whole thing was her idea in the first place but decides to let her have her little victory moment and keeps trying to answer the question of which pole goes where and why does it feel like he has to be an engineer to figure out how the whole thing works.

Kai does finally get it done after he forces Racheal to look up a tutorial on it. Luckily she succeeds since the campsite they chose to stay the night at his service. Since he had to put the tent up by him-self he forces Racheal to go get their stuff out of the car and put it all in their shared home for the night. Seeing as the sun is going down Kai starts trying to grab his bag that holds his pajamas so that he can get changed and turn in for the night. 

Racheal sees this and ask’s “What are you doing?” Kai just looks at her for a moment and then say’s “The suns going down and we had a long day so I thought we were just going to go to sleep for the night.” His best friend looks at him with a face full of disbelief. Once she sees that he’s still confused on what’s wrong with what he said, she decides to explain her self “We can’t just go to sleep, this is the perfect time for us to go into the cave,” he continues looking at her but this time with a face full of his own disbelief.

She then decides to take matters into her own hands and grabs two bags and starts stuffing them with supplies such as flashlights, rope, etc. Kai just looks at her doing this with shock, surprised that she wanted them to go do something as dangerous as travel into a cave they know nothing about at night in the dark with the bare minimum to take in with them. 

When she sees him still not catching on and agreeing with her plan, she says “Kai please, it’ll be fun and adventurous. I know you never usually do stuff like this, but don’t you just want to let go for the night. Come on, its Halloween weekend” she continues on saying this but this time with puppy dog eyes and a pout. Kai feels his resolve weakening until finally, he gives in with a sigh and Racheal being able to tell because she’s known him for so long, lets out a shriek of excitement.

***

Kai wonders later when he’s walking to the infamous cave, how he managed to get so unfit. He feels a ball of sweat roll down his back and shivers before jogging to catch up to Racheal who looks unaffected. It makes sense that Racheal wouldn’t be affected though since she’s on the track team and races on the weekends while the only thing he does on the weekends is be one with the living room couch and watch tv all day.

They keep walking for a few more minutes both enjoying the view around them and the smell of nature. As they get closer to the cave, their surroundings feel more and more narrow and confined and like their getting further away from civilization with every step. At this point, even Racheal can’t pretend she’s not even a little spooked and as a bird lets out a mournful caw, Kai sees his friend shiver uncontrollably in turn. Their feet start to bring them lower and lower until they’re right in front of the cave mouth with their only light source being the moon above.

They take a minute to just stare at the cave’s mouth and look at the pitch-black darkness that is waiting to swallow their bodies once they’re inside. Kai hears Racheal take in a deep breath beside him before she starts marching towards the cave opening, and he’s frozen for a second before hesitantly following after her. The second they stepped into the cavern they both felt chills run up their spines and as if something was putting pressure on their heads.

The pressure almost felt like stuff was moving around in their brains, like something was searching for them. They shake off the feeling and keep walking forward. Once they get a few more feet in the cave the moons light completely stops being able to enter the cavern and so they take their flashlights out of their bags and turn them on. The instant they do it feels as if shadows are reflected on every surface of the cavern including their own.

They take a moment to look at everything with their flashlights before continuing walking forward some more. As they walk Racheal says, “You know it’s not that bad with flashlights, it's actually quite cool.” Kai doesn’t know if he agrees with the first part of her statement, as he still feels as if something is watching him and while Racheal might feel as if this is a cool experience, he just can’t wait to leave. He decides that he doesn’t want to ruin Racheal’s experience though so he doesn’t say anything and just keeps following her, letting her lead.

As they walk, Racheal continues to ramble while Kai stares at the walls, and he notices something almost like a human-shaped outline being cast on one. At first he tries to convince himself in his head that it’s just one of their shadow’s but then the outline moves and acts like it’s almost peeking at them from behind a boulder. He walks a few steps closer but as he nears the shadow it ducks away behind another wall and without thinking about it he follows. As he is chasing the shadow, he doesn’t realize that Racheal’s voice is getting more and more faint until it’s gone altogether.

***

He stops and sucks in a deep breath after losing the shadow, remembering his thought process at the beginning of the journey to the cave and thinking about how the state he is now in just reinstates his suspicions of himself being really out of shape. When he finally gets a semblance of his breath back he notices how quiet it is and realizes that it's quiet because Racheal isn’t talking. He looks around and notices that his surroundings don’t look anything like the front inside of the cavern and is baffled at how different your environment can feel when you're just by yourself. He keeps looking around and marvels at how spooky the cave really looks.

He shines his light on the walls, rocks, and boulders and thinks to himself that he really wished Racheal was still with him. Panic starts to take over the shock and before he knows it he’s breathing really hard and trying not to cry. Kai finds himself starting to get frantic when he thinks about the fact that Racheal has both the bags because he sat his down at the front of the cave wanting a break from the heavyweight and thinking he could grab it again if they went in any deeper. All he has now is his flashlight and phone. With the ladder not really being able to do much since he has no service in the cave. He swiftly grabs the flashlight and turns it on.

Trying to stay calm and not think about the fact that he’s alone, Kai walks towards the direction that seems to not have as many rocks and boulders and tries to think of a plan to find Racheal and get out. Before he can really get deep into his own thought’s he hears a sound to his right and freezes. He slowly turns his head and he sees it. It being that it doesn’t really look like much at first but the longer he stares the more he starts seeing a shape take place. 

It looks more and more like a man until its form fully takes place and yep it definitely was a man. Though he didn’t really look fully human, he had pitch-black eyes, white parts and all, and he also had white almost translucent colored skin that made his eyes starkly stand out. Before he can say anything the man talks, “So you’re the one who’s made my cave walls hungry.” The man stated this as a fact and Kai drops the flashlight having felt a chill run down his spine as the same pressure that was on his mind at the beginning of the cavern came back. 

The pressure kept building and mounting and it felt like his brain was being put into a sifter until finally the pressure left within a blink and Kai let out a sigh of relief. “I understand now,” the man states in front of Kai, reminding him of his presence and how much Kai wished he was still alone. The man continued, “I guess I should introduce myself. My true name is something your human tongue can’t pronounce but you can call me Samhain.”

Kai thinks about this for a moment and marvels at the fact that this being had a name, such a human thing to have. As he sits in silence he notices that a man named Samhain almost seems impatient and not wanting to anger the creature, Kai says, “What do you want? How do I get back to my friend?”. Kai’s not sure if this creature even had the answers he seeks but it’s better than nothing and Kai has a hunch that this being is here and talking to him for a reason.

After a moment Samhain speaks up and what he says proves Kai’s theory correct. “You’re not wrong I do want something, but what I want isn’t going to be something you’re going to freely give me. That’s why we’re going to play a game. This game is called facing your fears. If you win I’ll let you live and show you how to get out. And If I win…you have to stay here... forever.”  
Kai takes this in and doesn’t say anything. On the outside he’s completely still almost frozen. 

Internally though it’s a different matter entirely, it almost feels like his emotions are in shock but also fighting for their lives like they’re running and throwing themselves at an indestructible wall trying to get out and away but something in Kai just isn’t letting them, like showing weakness to such a seemingly strong creature would be like letting blood flow freely in a shark-filled pool. 

The man named Samhain just keeps watching as Kai goes through his emotional freak out until finally Kai has enough courage to say, “And what if I don’t want to play this game?” The man laughs and then replies, “You don’t really have a choice.” Kai thinks this over not wanting to believe this cold hard fact but can’t seem to find any holes in the statement’s honesty. The man continues staring, pitch-black eyes seemingly laughing but also within, there was a hint of hunger. A hunger for what exactly, Kai didn’t want to think about. Finally, Kai comes to the inevitable conclusion that what Samhain said was true, he didn’t really have another option and so he said, “Fine. What exactly do I have to do to win this game?” 

The creature contemplated Kai for a minute and then replied, “To win you have to be able to face what you’re afraid of and walk away fearless. And if at the end of the challenge you’re still afraid, well then I haven’t had a good meal in quite some time.”

Well, Kai thinks to himself, he’s already come to the conclusion that there isn’t anything else he can do so he says, “Ok, fine I’ll do it.” The second Kai finishes his sentence Samhain disappears and everything around him goes dark. For a split second, it feels as if something is being pulled from his head before pictures flash in front of his eyes. When his focus fully comes back he sees a man standing in front of a mirror staring at himself. 

He then opens the cabinet above the sink and takes out a bottle of prescription pills that has his name stamped on the label. He stares at the bottle for a few minutes before taking the cap off and downing everything inside. As his father takes a deep breath after finally getting it all down, he turns his heads towards Kai and says, “If you would have made her happy enough, she wouldn’t have had to substitute with cigarettes.”

Kai stares in shock at the man he once knew as a father saying his deepest darkest fears, and before he can muster up anything to say back the scene changes and he’s now seeing his mom sitting in the recliner of their living room smoking a chain of cigarettes, tapping off the ash at the tip of the stick onto the floor. A young boy watches from around the opening leading to the kitchen, so used to the smoke from being around it for so long that his nose doesn’t even sting from the harsh smell. 

While staring at the cigarette the woman says, “You know If you would have focused on your dad more instead of getting sucked into your own pool of guilty grief maybe he could have healed and wouldn’t have to kill himself to escape his world of misery.” Finally, the woman turns her head to stare at Kai, and all he sees in her soulless eyes are the images of his dad downing the pills.

Everything goes black once again, and when light shines once more Samhain is right back in front of him. For a minute all Kai can do is stare, still shocked at what was shown to him, not wanting to believe what fear he was going to have to face. Before he could fully gather himself Samhain starts talking. “I wonder if your mom was the only reason your dad stayed in the first place, I mean once she was gone he was ready to jump ship.” Kai tries not to let this get to him, even though he knows the reason he avoided talking about his parents in the first place was because he thought the same thing. 

Always wondered when he was younger whether his dad and mom really wanted him in the first place or maybe they saw death as an escape.  
Before he can keep digging himself into a self-destructive hole, Samhain keeps talking, “It must break your grandmother’s heart to think about the fact that her son killed himself to get away from you.” This stops Kai right in the middle of his internal war with his emotions because one thing Kai knows for sure is that his grandma loved him and that she would never blame him for anything. 

He looks up at Samhain and stares at him, remembering what this whole thing was about. How if he doesn’t get through this then he’ll be stuck here forever and his grandma will be left alone. This gives him enough courage to speak up and say, “No she wouldn’t because she loves me and,” Kai pauses for a moment, “and because she’s proud of me and she said that she thinks my parents would be proud of me too, I didn’t believe her at first but,” Kai pauses again, “I think I have too, for me and for my grandmother's sake.” 

At once everything in the cave starts shaking and Samhain disappears with one last sentence, “I’ll just have to wait for someone else’s fears to feed me then. Happy Allhallowmas.” Kai starts looking wildly around but before he can figure out what’s happening everything goes dark.

Kai’s breath starts to get shallower and shallower until he feels as if his heart is going to jump out of his chest. Before he can catch his breath back, light is suddenly shining at the end of the cave almost like a light at the end of a tunnel. Kai walks closer and closer not even noticing that his surroundings look like the entrance of the cavern from earlier. Before he knows it he’s at the opening and lifting his hands up to cover his face, the sunlight being too bright for his eyes to handle after being so used to the dark.

Once he’s able to bring his hands back down, his ears pick up voices and he looks up to see Racheal frantically talking to police officers. Confused, Kai walks over not noticing the sudden quietness that falls over everyone. Racheal noticing the astonished looks on the officer’s faces looks over and sees Kai walking towards her. Before Kai can say anything, Racheal is running towards him and knocking him over with her weight. 

They both fall to the ground with a bang and Racheal starts crying. All Kai can make out is how worried Racheal was when she noticed Kai was gone and how guilty she felt since it was her idea. Before Kai can try to comfort her, Racheal shoots up and sends him a facial expression that was a mixture of anger and worry asking, “Where were you? What happened?” All Kai can think to say is, “I played a game.”

***

After getting questioned by Racheal some more after his cryptic answer she finally drops him back off at his grandma’s house. Walking up the stone stairs and going through the brown wooden door, Kai finds his grandmas in the recliner in the living room watching tv and knitting. Sitting his bag on the floor, Kai walks over to his grandma and grabs her hand. “I need to tell you something,” Though confused, his grandma lets him lead her to the couch, and after sitting down, Kai continues, “I’m ready to finally talk about my parents.”

The End

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it even if only a little!! Have an amazing day!


End file.
